Harriet Henry, associate professor of health and physical education and former volleyball coach, was the cornerstone of the Buena Vista women’s athletic program. She initiated BVU’s women’s intercollegiate sports program, coaching volleyball and tennis.
Henry, who often coached more than one sport during the same time of the year, juggled travel time to allow her teams to play. She once noted a time when both a tennis invitational and volleyball tournament were scheduled the same weekend in Sioux City. She dropped the tennis team off at the courts and let them play, and then she coached her volleyball team in the gymnasium nearby. After volleyball concluded, she arrived at the tennis court to assume her coaching role for that sport.
Henry balanced coaching several sports and compiled several winning seasons. She led her 1973-74 softball team to the conference tournament with an 8-0 record and took her 1982 volleyball team to a third-place finish in the lo-Kota conference.
Following BVU's split from the lo-Kota in 1984, Coach Henry directed her 1985 volleyball squad to a 26-12 season. For her team’s successful season, the conference named Henry the Iowa Conference Volleyball Coach of the Year. Henry earned her master’s degree in physical education from USD in 1965 and her bachelor of arts degree in 1957 from Fort Hays Kansas State College.
Coach Henry played a vital role in developing BVU women’s athletic programs, making the Beavers a power within the Iowa Conference and NCAA Division III.
